Top Rank Magazine

On our 49th episode, we enjoyed the rare opportunity to share an hour with a writer whose work has been hugely important to both of us. Jungian analyst and podcaster Lisa Marchiano is the author of several books, including one that we hold especially close: “Motherhood: Facing and Finding Yourself.” In the last five years, we both became mothers, and because of this we’ve been navigating completely new lives and ways of relating to ourselves, to the world around us, and to time itself. There nothing quite like the initiation into parenthood. It is joyful, disorienting, and profoundly beautiful—and, at times, full of loss, grief, and frustration. It was an honor to speak to Marchiano about the many and rich complexities and contradictions of this experience, and how we learn to make meaning from even our most turbulent transformations. Our intro (“Love is Love”) and outro (“My Ace”) are courtesy of KING VISION ULTRA, 2025.

For our 48th episode, we shared time with the brilliant Emily Manwaring—an artist from and living in New York City whose tender, evocative, & multidimensional works on canvas have been shown at galleries and institutions such as Canada, New Image Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Venice Biennale. We first came into contact with Emily when we licensed one of her paintings to illustrate our 2023 book about nameplate jewelry and have remained drawn both to her prolific creativity and generous spirit. We spoke about what led her to start making images, the need to stay grounded and purposeful while navigating the fickle pressures of the art industry, and how the poetry of NYC life and heritage emerges in her work. Our intro (“Love is Love”) and outro (“My Ace”) are courtesy of KING VISION ULTRA, 2025.

Our 47th episode welcomes dynamic duo Melissa Sáenz Gordon & Molly Salas of Soft Power Vote: a civic engagement resource that leverages digital, print, and live formats to encourage New Yorkers—and especially millennials and Gen Z—to vote! While just a few days away from the Democratic mayoral primary election in NYC, we’re honored to share the perspectives of two people who have been extremely busy engaging us, and so many of our peers, with crucial information and tools around the urgency of participating in local political infrastructures. This conversation unpacks what brought each of them to this work, some of the eccentricities of election policies and logistics in NYC, and, most importantly, the complexities of navigating the inevitable cynicism of a world in turmoil to act on the belief that we can and must each contribute to shaping and caring for the city we hold so dear. To learn more about Soft Power Vote, visit them on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/softpowervote/ Our intro (“Love is Love”

For our 43rd episode, and our first after a multi-year (and multi-child) parental leave, we sat down face to face with artist June Canedo de Souza (@junecanedodesouza) on the occasion of Deli Radio—a platform she created with Daniel Santos while in residence at Recess Art in Brooklyn—which Top Rank was delighted to be included in. We spoke to June about the enduring impacts of childhood on our perspective, obsessions, and creative expression; the thematic considerations of gender, labor, migration, and consumerism that permeate her art across painting, sculpture, and performance; and what it’s like to make art (or anything, really) as a new mother. Our intro (“Love is Love”) and outro (“My Ace”) are courtesy of KING VISION ULTRA, 2025.

For episode 44, we invited illustrator, author, and comedian Daisy Ruiz (@draizys) to bring us into her journey as an award-winning cartoonist and, more recently, aspiring comedian. We talked with Daisy about her highly-acclaimed, super inspiring, and hilarious first comic book—”Gordita: Built Like This” (2023)—and how she combined memory, fiction, and humor to create a parable about the body politics of girlhood. Our conversation digs into how she creates whole worlds on paper; the influence of growing up in the Bronx on her eye and style of storytelling; and how comics can capture the complexity and magic of everyday life. Our intro (“Love is Love”) and outro (“My Ace”) are courtesy of KING VISION ULTRA, 2025.

On episode 45, we welcomed scholar, community arts educator, curator, and artist Dr. Jillian Hernandez (@pastelitocookie), whose work challenges the ways racialized and working-class bodies, sexualities, and cultural practices are policed through gendered tropes of deviancy and respectability. We spoke to Jillian about her debut book “Aesthetics of Excess: The Art and Politics of Black and Latina Embodiment” (2020); the insurgent Miami-based art collective, Women on the Rise!, which she founded in 2004; her personal, lived journey into scrutinizing the cultural politics of style; and the radical possibilities of excess. Our intro (“Love is Love”) and outro (“My Ace”) are courtesy of KING VISION ULTRA, 2025.

For episode 46, we spoke to scholar and author Francesca Sobande, whose research focuses on the impact of digital media in shaping how we perceive, understand, and experience the world and each other. Our conversation explores Francesca’s numerous books (which address topics such as the online lives of Black women in the UK, the ways that big brands manipulate, exploit, and even derail social justice movements, and the commodification of care culture in COVID-19), and the way digital media informs *and* is informed by what we think is “real life.” Our intro (“Love is Love”) and outro (“My Ace”) are courtesy of KING VISION ULTRA, 2025.

On episode 42 we are joined by Mims — an artist, abolitionist, and facilitator based in Los Angeles, CA. Mims is the mind behind “Uncle Ronnie’s Room,” an art-driven campaign to mobilize the general public and media around the story of Ronald (Ronnie) Coleman Jr. and Carl Coleman’s wrongful conviction over 20 years ago. At 29 years old, Ronald Coleman Jr. was sentenced to two life sentences plus 65 years for a murder case that he was not involved in. Ronnie is currently incarcerated at Calhoun State Prison in Morgan, Georgia, where he has lost 22 years of his life and counting. Through exploring his childhood, Uncle Ronnie’s Room takes us deeper into who Ronnie is as a person, information about his case, and the impact his incarceration has had on his family. The work invites attendees to imagine what he could have done with 22 years of his life, creates space to collectively tap into spiritual and ancestral guidance, and questions the system at large. Learn more about the campaign and support here: https

This episode features our conversation with Destiny Mata, an NYC/San Antonio photographer and filmmaker whose work focuses on topics pertaining to subculture and community. Her photography book "The Way We Were" documents the alternative punks of color scene in NYC. Destiny is formerly the Director of Photography Programs at the Lower East Side Girls Club and her work has been published in Vogue, Vice’s Noisey, Vibe, The Source, and Mass Appeal. Her work has been exhibited on a multitude of occasions, including for the 2020 Photoville Festival, at the International Center of Photography, and at the Museum of the City of New York, to name just a few. Learn more about Destiny: http://www.destinymata.com Her book "The Way We Were" is available for purchase here https://www.theculturecrush.com/culture-crush-editions/the-way-we-were

Over the last decade, manifestation-based rhetorics to “love yourself,” “believe in yourself” and “feel good in your own skin” have become guiding social directives for people, and especially for women. We see these mantras in social media captions, advertising campaigns, and song lyrics that seem to promise that, through a confidence-based mindset, we will be able to transform our psychology, and therefore the material conditions of our lives. Though it may seem harmless, or even empowering, the tendency to emphasize individual agency over the structural conditions we exist within and through is perhaps the core component of a culture of neoliberalism that also permeates and drives almost every part of our society. We spoke with sociologists Shani Orgad and Rosalind Gill who are the minds behind "Confidence Culture," a new book that specifically examines how the entrenched social injustices of our time have been reframed as psychological blocks, and what this means for us. Shani Orgad is an associate pr

Celebrity culture thrives on granting us vicarious access to our favorite stars. But rarely on display are the paparazzi and reporters whose hidden labor makes the story happen. In "Manufacturing Celebrity: Latino Paparazzi and Women Reporters in Hollywood", anthropologist Dr. Vanessa Díaz brings us inside the world celebrity media production and reveals the complex racial and gendered power relations at play in the production of fame. On this episode, we are joined by Diaz, an interdisciplinary ethnographer, filmmaker, journalist & Assistant Professor of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. Learn more about Vanessa's research & book here https://manufacturingcelebritybook.com

We’re honored to have had the chance to interview a scholar whose work we’ve appreciated for a long time—lauded sociologist Jessie Daniels, who is a professor at Hunter College and CUNY Graduate Center and a faculty affiliate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. She is an expert on racism’s manifestations in the media and online, as well as the author of several books, including “White Lies”—a look at white supremacist extremist groups' printed newsletters—and “Cyber Racism,” which examines the ways in which far-right extremism has come alive on the internet. For this episode, we spoke with Jessie about her newest publication—“Nice White Ladies: The Truth about White Supremacy, Our Role in It, and How We Can Help Dismantle It” (2021)—and how the ideological constructions of gender and whiteness are detrimentally wielded within America’s cultural mythology. Learn more about Jessie Daniels' work here: https://www.jessiedaniels.net

For our last episode of 2021, we shared a special conversation with artist, writer, and organizer Eilen Itzel Mena (@eilen.itzel.mena), whose interdisciplinary visual art practice synthesizes elements of Abstract Expressionism and Surrealism with spiritual frameworks of the African Diaspora. Eilen is co-director and creative collaborator for @_honeyandsmoke_—an artist community & platform that makes space for artists to meditate on the important themes of our time—and a principal member of @zealcoop, a Black artist cooperative, creative agency, and studio. We talked to Eilen about her upbringing between the Dominican Republic and NYC, the personal origins of her relationship to creativity, and the role of spirituality, ritual, and knowledge of self in how she’s navigating and finding purpose in her work. Visit Eilen's website: https://www.eilenitzelmena.com

The social media influencer is one of today’s most talked about and divisive figures. They represent the convergence of technology and the surveillance state with a consumer culture that encourages us to conceptualize our identities through market logic—each of us entrepreneurs within our own lifestyle brands. On our latest episode, we spoke with Anuli Akanegbu (@anuliwashere), anthropologist & NYU doctoral student, about the rise of the influencer marketing and its impact on contemporary culture. Anuli’s research examines how race and desirability factor into the success of Black-identifying social media content creators and influencers in the particular creative economy of Atlanta, GA. We talked with Anuli about how racism structures the industry, and about how the power of influencer culture may effect the future of labor itself. Check out Anuli’s podcast @BLKIRL where she digs into these topics even further. https://www.blkirl.com

Cosmetic surgery is one of the fastest growing medical procedures in the United States. According to 2019 figures from the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, the US has the highest number of cosmetic procedures conducted annually, as well as the largest number of practicing cosmetic surgeons, who are among this country's highest paid medical professionals. Cosmetic surgery is also a rapidly growing industry globally and countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Japan, and South Korea are sought after destinations for people seeking specialty procedures. Though highly variable according to context, aesthetic standards for beauty are always socially and politically constructed. In this episode, we spoke with Dr. Alka Menon, a medical sociologist and assistant professor at Yale University whose research centers on the relationship between the body and social identities, especially race and ethnicity, and how these ideas manifest in the realm of cosmetic surgery. How is cosmetic surgery enmeshed in the t

For our final episode of 2020, we welcomed a personal hero of both of ours—the trailblazing designer, entrepreneur, and thinker April Walker (@iamaprilwalker), who in the past three decades has been instrumental in shaping the industry and aesthetic category we now call “streetwear.” In 1987, Walker launched her custom clothing boutique, Fashion in Effect, out of her own home. The following year, she opened her first shop on Greene Avenue in Brooklyn, paving the way for the birth of her seminal ready-to-wear label, Walker Wear, adored by the likes of Aaliyah, Mike Tyson, Tupac Shakur, and the Notorious B.I.G., to name just a few. For our 34th episode, Walker shares snapshots from her experience bearing witness to the interconnected evolutions of Hip Hop and New York fashion, and explains why collective work and cooperative economics are crucial for inventing a different and better future for the fashion industry. https://www.instagram.com/iamaprilwalker/ https://www.instagram.com/Walkerwear/

As mega media companies merge, and social media platforms siphon us into echo chambers, independent content creation remains one of the most empowering aspects of our current moment. Those with access to a computer and wifi connection can develop and distribute their own media - and point of view - with a sense of urgency, creativity and scale that was once thought to be unimaginable. @lifewithjrdn is a writer, curator of the Instagram account @true_to_us and host of the podcast “Dating in NYC. Her work spans everything from lifestyle and fashion blogging, to bold IGTV videos on sex positivity and safety. Check out Jourdan's work http://www.lifewithjrdn.com/ https://www.instagram.com/lifewithjrdn/ https://www.instagram.com/datinginnycpod/ https://www.instagram.com/true_to_us/

It is impossible to separate the workings of the art world – and what these institutions deem valuable — with the compounding racist, sexist, and classist ideas that run through American society. For artists who identify with the pan-ethnic category of Latinx, institutional marginalization in the contemporary art world brings forth urgent questions around the politics of identity, the marketing of ethnicity, and the future of arts institutions. To unpack these dynamics, we spoke to cultural anthropologist and NYU professor Dr. Arlene Davila, about her new book, "Latinx Art: Artists, Markets and Politics" from Duke University Press. Our listeners get 30% off their purchase of "Latinx Art" on the Duke University Press website by using the code "E20DVILA" at checkout https://www.dukeupress.edu/latinx-art Follow Professor Davila on Twitter @ArleneDavila1

Tech is one of the biggest, fastest changing, and most in-demand industries in terms both of services and of jobs. It is also a fraught and largely yet-to-be traversed territory, that comes with many critical and even existential questions, from AI and automation to privacy and surveillance. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the role of technology in our lives into high relief, while also forcing us to totally reimagine the workplace, as countless careers are becoming remote, perhaps indefinitely. On this episode, we spoke with Jerelyn Rodriguez (@jerelyn_r) & Joe Carrano (@joeknows718), founders of The Knowledge House—an education organization in the Bronx that offers technical training and professional development to youth and young adults. Their programming provides students with the skills to pursue of range of careers in the tech industry, from data science to web design. Check out The Knowledge House at https://www.theknowledgehouse.org/ and on social media @TheKnowledgeHouse

Over the past few weeks, starting in Minneapolis and spreading across the US and the globe, people have taken to the streets to express their fury, grief and immense collective frustration at a broken system built upon genocide, exploitation, racial capitalism and police brutality—a system that has resisted the same demands for change over generations. We are in the midst of an enormous cultural shift in the ongoing struggle for liberation for Black people, as well as all people of color, and, as always, some of the most important work is being led by young people voicing their demands for the future. For our 30th episode, we spoke with Kiara Williams, Gaya Rajesh and Cindy Kamtchoum of Warriors in the Garden—a newly-founded collective of New York activists dedicated to nonviolent protest and combating police brutality and all forms of systemic oppression—about their take on the moment. Follow @warriorsinthegarden on IG to join the movement https://www.instagram.com/warriorsinthegarden/